Kathy Allender
Performing Arts: Dance; term
Kathy LaChelle Allender began her dance training and performance career within color guard at North Central High School (1994-1995), Lawrence North High School (1995-1996), and Lawrence Central High School (1996-1998), spinning flag, rifle, and saber, and learning ballet and jazz dance. At Lawrence Central, under the direction of Greg Hagen and the late Tod Hinton, Kathy was awarded a plaque in 1998 for “The Most Outstanding Color Guard Member.”
In 2002, she received her Bachelor of Arts in French and Associate of Arts in English at Indiana University Bloomington; however, it was being a member of the African American Dance Company (AADC) at IU, under the direction of Iris Rosa, where she discovered a passion equal to studying French – dance.
With AADC, she studied jazz, ballet, Horton modern, Afro-Cuban, and contemporary dancing, as well as Mat Pilates. Kathy also studied jazz dance under the instruction of Fred Walton through IU’s Jacobs School of Music, in addition to have taken several ballet classes at the school. She continued her dance training at the Urban Arts Center of Indianapolis where she explored in West African and Middle Eastern dancing, an apprenticeship in L.A. Style salsa at IndySalsa, and beginning ballet at the Jordan Academy of Dance. Kathy also has danced in professional performance companies such as Sancocho Music and Dance Collage, Chatarabaan, The Undefeatable Beats, Nyama Drum and Dance Ensemble, Kenyettá Dance Company,People, Paint, and Percussion, the (Re)Collective Company, and the Nicholas Owens Dance Company.
Abroad, Kathy has learned a traditional dance from Mauritius called “Le Sega” of which she choreographed a dance piece that was presented at the 2002 African American Dance Company Spring Concert. The Bloomington Herald-Times wrote “The sense of culture exhibited through the dance was creative and choreographically strong.” During the fall of 2004 in Tunisia, Kathy taught contemporary-jazz to Tunisian students at an English language summer camp sponsored by Bureau de Formation Technologie and Amideast-Tunis through AIESEC International.
Kathy has also taken many Master classes from various AADC workshops in Bloomington, IN; the International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD) conference in Toronto, Canada; and a Professional Summer Intensive program in Chicago, IL through Deeply Rooted. In January of 2007 in Indianapolis, she had the honor of being a judge for the dance category of the Prelude Awards.
In 2008, Kathy received her Mat I and Mat II Pilates certifications and her Mat with Props
certification in 2009 from PHI Pilates in Monongahela, PA via the Mindful Movement Pilates and Yoga Studio in Indianapolis, IN. PHI trains with a scientific approach to Pilates. Since being certified in Mat Pilates, Kathy has taught at Organic Rhythms Dance Studio, Cityoga, The Earth House, NIFS, and L.A. Fitness. She also has taught “Dance! Pilates for Dancers” in 2008 and 2009 for a Youth In Arts Summer Camp, sponsored both by the Madame Walker Theatre and 100 Black Men, where she additionally set choreography on her students which was performed on the Walker Theatre’s main stage. Kathy has taught as well “Debut: Beginning Mat Pilates” and Intermediate Pilates at Cross Roads Martial Arts, and Beginning Mat Pilates at the Benjamin Harrison YMCA and at the Mapleton Wellness Center.
In 2012, Kathy had the fortunate opportunity to set choreography on two models through
LModelz, of which they, and Kathy, danced with the Aberdeen Project band as an opening act for the infamous Cameo, The Deele, and Steve Arrington. That following year in August 2013, she participated in the Indy Fringe Festival, choreographed and assisted directing “Harlem Nights Cabaret” with the late lyric pianist and carilloneur William E. Engle of Butler University.
Kathy currently teaches Movement classes, Pilates and dance, for a new-model boot camp through LModelz Model Management, is a choreographer for the cultural dance group of the Haitian Association of Indiana, and is a Color Guard Staff member for the Marching Pride of Lawrence Township Band and Guard, teaching dance technique, Pilates, and conditioning.
